Jovens de projetos sociais em tempos neoliberais: o “personagem do social”

Abstract

This paper draws on a survey of youths living in São Paulo City’s Heliópolis district who participated in projects carried out since childhood by the Heliópolis and São João Clímaco Residents’ Union of Centers and Associations (UNAS, from the Portuguese União de Núcleos, Associações e Sociedade de Moradores de Heliópolis and São João Clímaco). Based on the data collected, this paper analyzes how youth engagement in corporate-funded social projects managed by social movement organization UNAS is configured. The social relevance of the research lies in the possibility of presenting to the scientific community some reflections on the action of entities linked to big companies and how this action affects these youths’ future plans and goals, especially if we consider the contradictions these projects carry, with their social inclusion goal. The theoretical orientation was provided by studies conducted by Sawaia on the exclusion/inclusion dialectic that show that all individuals are somehow included in society, yet not always in a way that is decent and just, while most of humanity is included in a setting of deprivation, scarcity, and vulnerability. It started from the supposition that there would be a young entrepreneur model and the question: what kind of youth is formed by social projects? However, the search revealed a not provided question: the political and ethical suffering generated by the adoption of the identity of what was named by the youths as the “character of the social” that is experienced as a categorical imperative, an obligation to be in the social